ALBUM REVIEW – ARME / Rhys Trimble / Wolframite – Un Dictionnaire De Déesses

Defiling convention and spunking in the face of the world as we know it,  AntiRock Missile Ensemble (ARME) / Rhys Trimble / Wolframite toured France last year and ‘Un Dictionnaire De Déesses’ is the result of a three day recording session at Les Ateliers de Bitche, Nantes in November 2022. On hearing this you’ll be forgiven for assuming this session was in fact a bring-your-own-ket orgy at a leaking nuclear power facility, and you’d be on the money (shot).

Rhys Trimble is also responsible for pyromanic-punksters Lolfa Binc and audience culling Anxiolytics, both never to be forgotten experiences in their own right. And tonight Matthew he is ranting, grunting, shuffling and screaming through ‘Un Dictionnaire De Déesses,’ performing nine pieces of not-normal anti-jazz. The fact that opening track / song / thing, Llidiart Cinio is silent for the first three minutes, sets the tone.

I do love this kind of shit and the madness of it all – Sirène tries to get going amid feedback and eerie slowed down voices, before Trimble drags himself from the mire, reciting something incomprehensible (language unknown). Whereas the temptation to smash in with loud guitars and drums would have been too much for me, this uncomfortably dies teasingly away and into Ictus, which dies even more.

Epone staggers to the fore. The musicians all want to attack, but who goes first? Someone is in pain, it could be bassist Julien Ottavi, gruffly wailing as the crescendo consumes all around. Closing track Emma O is full of the chaos that makes a barfight in Kinmel Bay seem like a church fete.

Those guilty of being accessories to this crime against music are Benjamin Bourdel, Jean Grimault, Julien Ottavi, Francesco Petetta, Jenny Pickett, Philippe Simon, Anthony Taillard, Rhys Trimble and Gabriel Vogel.
May God have mercy upon your souls.